Ten arguments for growing your own organic food: studies finding more minerals and nutrients, lower grocery bills, less pesticide exposure for children, slowing the 3 billion tons of topsoil eroded yearly, protecting groundwater polluted in 38 states, and cutting farming's energy use.
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Environment
Farming, agriculture and the environmental side of the food system.
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Environment
Spices work like valium hammer on pests
Murry Isman of the University of British Columbia says a blend of rosemary, clove, thyme and peppermint oils kills ants, roaches, flies and other pests by blocking octopamine in the insect's nervous system. It breaks down in water within 24 hours.
Environment
Milford Citizens Told to Boil Tap Water
A test last Wednesday found E. coli and other fecal coliform bacteria in water from Echo Lake Reservoir. Water manager Henry Papuga told residents to boil tap water and throw out food and formula made with it; traces were gone by Sunday, but boiling continues until further notice.
Environment
Radiation raises diabetes risk in cancer survivors
An Archives of Internal Medicine study compared 8,599 childhood cancer survivors with 2,936 siblings and found 2.5 percent had diabetes against 1.7 percent. Abdominal radiation raised the odds 2.7-fold and total body radiation 7.2-fold, unrelated to BMI or activity.
Environment
Antibiotic Resistant Staph: A Threat to Home HealthCare Providers
Archives of Internal Medicine reports 191 of 1,501 patients screened on leaving hospital carried methicillin-resistant staph, and 36 picked it up during follow-up. Home caregivers face the greatest risk, since staph spreads by skin contact and through used bandages and towels.
Environment
Agent Orange still posing toxic threats
An Institute of Medicine report says Agent Orange exposure may raise veterans' risk of Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease, though the committee rated the evidence of association as limited. It also linked hairy cell leukemia to the herbicide.
Environment
Cutting carbons to clean up the climate
A National Research Council report estimates that using solar and wind more efficiently could cut more than 800 million metric tons of U.S. electricity-sector emissions by 2030. Reaching even 20 percent wind power would take over 100,000 turbines, $100 billion in investment and 140,000 workers.
Environment
Is Fluoride Added to in Your Water? Get it Out
A news release from the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation urges readers to check the fluoride level in their annual water quality report and press suppliers to stop adding it, citing CDC dental fluorosis figures and a 2006 National Research Council review.
Agriculture
Correction: Tuna and toxins
Foodconsumer corrects an earlier headline: methylmercury contamination has increased in Pacific Ocean waters, not in Pacific Ocean fish. The item reprints the 2004 FDA and EPA mercury advice for women who may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children.
Environment
E-Groups want “toxic tubs” cleaned up
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported that 61 percent of 48 baby bath products it tested contained formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, both probable human carcinogens per the EPA. It asked Johnson & Johnson to remove them; the company says trace levels are considered safe.
Agriculture
The Buzz about the Bees
Spanish researchers have isolated and treated Nosema ceranae, a microbe thought to be one cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, the National Academy of Sciences reports. USDA says hive losses of 30 to 90 percent began in 2006 and calls their magnitude highly unusual.
Agriculture
Swine flu studied since the 1960s
An early-outbreak tally: CDC listed 226 confirmed U.S. swine flu cases across 30 states, Bloomberg later 241 in 34, while WHO counted 898 cases in 18 countries, including 506 cases and 19 deaths in Mexico. Canada reported the virus in an Alberta swine herd.
Environment
Sociodemographic differences in binge drinking among adults
CDC's analysis of 2004 BRFSS data found binge drinking most common among men (24.3%), people aged 18-24 (27.4%) and whites (17.5%). Adjusted for sex and age, the most episodes came from drinkers earning under $25,000, and the most drinks per binge from non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics.
Environment
Challenges to Assessing Cancer Effects of Mobile Phone Use
A review of 33 peer-reviewed epidemiologic studies argues that design problems may understate brain tumor risk among mobile phone users. It weighs recall bias about which ear people use and notes the Interphone study counted cordless phone users, who get similar exposure, as unexposed.
Environment
Toxic chemicals found in common scented laundry products, air fresheners
Anne Steinemann of the University of Washington tested six top-selling laundry products and air fresheners and detected nearly 100 volatile organic compounds, none named on the labels. Every product emitted at least one regulated toxic chemical and five emitted a carcinogen.
Environment
Industry says granite countertops are safe to use
The Marble Institute of America dismissed Rice physicist W.J. Llope's radiation findings as junk science, citing EPA statements that the agency has no reliable data showing countertop granite significantly raises indoor radon, which it attributes mainly to soil gas.
Environment
Cell phone users at higher risk of tumors
An American Journal of Epidemiology study of 402 benign and 58 malignant parotid gland tumours in Israel found people who used cell phones more than 22 hours a month had a 50 percent higher risk, with tumours more often on the side the phone was held.
Environment
Pesticides Persist in Ground Water
USGS scientists sampling shallow ground water at four U.S. sites found the compounds detected most often were triazine and chloroacetanilide herbicides and their degradation products. None of the insecticides or fungicides examined turned up in the samples.
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